This tree is widespread across eastern states, but concentrated on moderately dry, warm sites with a history of burning or browsing. The confused name C. alba (L.) Nutt. ex Ell. has been applied in some literature (W), but a proposal to reject that name has been accepted (Ward & Wiersema 2008). During Virginian settlement of Ky. (Campbell 1989), the common name "white hickory" was applied both to this species and to cordiformis (bitternut), which does have a distinctly whitish bark, often more so than tomentosa (mockernut). In the central Bluegrass, Short (1828-9) noted: "Carya tomentosa (White heart hickory, Mockernut, &c.). Less common than either of the preceeding [C. ovata, C. laciniosa] in this neighbourhood, and a smaller tree... This is the species so abundant in the barrens of Kentucky where the growth being obstructed by annual fires, whilst the root continues to extend itself, an immense and solid mass is found beneath the soil attached to a bare shrub above it. This species, moreover, is characterized by the large amount of hard, close-grained, white sap-wood which it bears, and which is especially fitted for axe helves and axle-trees. It is thought a superior fuel to all the other hickories." However, Shaler (1884) referred to C. tomentosa as "black hickory". Curiously, there is no recorded state champion for this species; the national champion is in Va. (americanforests .org): 140 cm dbh, 43 m tall, 26 m wide. However, the state-wide forest inventory of US Forest Service recorded a tree in 1999 from LIVI (plot 848): 181 cm dbh and 21 m tall.